Mark Walker was the man in the limelight on Sunday when he scooped up the first three races on the programme before making it a quartet of wins two races later.
With the bumper team of 31 runners flying his banner over the weekend, the 2015 Singapore champion trainer would have been disappointed if he did not visit the winner’s circle at least once.
But from the first 15 to go around on Friday, none of them were able to make Walker meet the minimum quota. Luckily, he was still left with one race meeting to go to try and restore some pride.
Racing is a funny old game, because the stark contrast between the two days was like night and day. After firing blanks throughout the eight races two days earlier (he did not field any runner only in Race 4), Walker bounced straight back to winning form in quickfire succession with Asprey (Race 1, $37), Hidden Promise (Race 2, $27) and Nazir (Race 3, $66).
In one fell swoop, the Kiwi handler had sprung to the top with Nazir before extending the lead to two winners (17 against Alwin Tan’s 15) with $17 favourite Star Strike in Race 5, the $38,000 Kranji Stakes D race over 1200m.
“There is no secret to the stable going great. I’ve got lovely staff and I’m lucky to be racing for the right people, like John Galvin of Fortuna NZ Racing (owners of Hidden Promise), Dato Terry Lee and Teresa (owners of Asprey and Nazir) who are all people who understand the sport of kings,” said Walker.
“Star Strike’s owners are new to my stable, but we also need new blood in this game.
“It’s great to get a win for Dato Tan Chin Nam who owns Nazir in partnership with Dato Terry. He’s also a fantastic owner and I hope that win will cheer him up as he’s not been in the best of health lately.
“I’ve won four from five races so far and I hope it continues. I sent out a big team of horses this weekend and it’s good to get a few winners after the quiet Friday.”
Of Hidden Promise, the second pin of his four-timer, Walker said that the Postponed four-year-old was still mentally immature, but that first win after five starts, could be a trigger to better things to come.
“He is a progressive type of horse, very slow-maturing. He wouldn’t do too much at his first prep, and I gave him a freshen-up,” said Walker.
“He’s still very young and weak in the head, but he’s shown some improvement in his work. He was all over the place, as you could see from the way he hung in badly.
“It’s good to get another winner for John. David Ellis bought this one out of the Ready To Run at Karaka for John.
“He will go for a break now and hopefully, he will strengthen up further during that time.”
Walker’s apprentice jockey Zawari Sazali said that Hidden Promise ran like a “lazy” horse but he could certainly identify a certain degree of potential.
After following in fourth spot, a fair gap off the leading trio in the $35,000 Class 5 race over 1600m, Hidden Promise looked a moral when Zawari hooked him out for his challenge, but things suddenly went awry when the wayward gelding lugged back to the inside.
Half the time when such horses zag when they should zig close home, defeat is at the receiving end, but Hidden Promise was able to find a second wind – and a gap on the inside – to score by a neck from Tiger Bay (Amirul Ismadi) with Dragon (Derreck David) third another three parts of a length away. The winning time was 1min 35.62secs for the 1600m on the Short Course.
“The horse is very lazy. He was in a good spot, but I had to wake him up to get him going,” said Zawari.
“He got onto the bit quite well when we straightened up, but then he ducked back inside. He was very green, but luckily, he still had a kick left in him.”
While Hidden Promise was at his grand premiere, Nazir, a five-year-old by Mastercraftsman, was recording his third career win in the $80,000 Class 3 race over 1600m, but the first for Gerald Mosse.
“I saw some of his races on video and normally he takes a sit, but he was a bit closer to the speed this time,” said the French ace who had his daughter Kimberley at the races.
“He was right behind the leader. I was not worried as I knew he had the distance, and he was running very relaxed.
“He gave a very nice kick and fought on gamely, I didn’t know the horse, but he’s very genuine. It’s nice to have Kimberley to celebrate that winner here with me today.”
To Walker, the key ingredient to Nazir’s latest win was the return to the mile.
“I think first-up over 1200m didn’t suit him. When a distance is not right for a horse, it can take the edge off them at their first run,” he reasoned.
“Back up to 1600m, the trip suited better and that helped him. Gerald also rode him very well.”
With that third win, Nazir has now taken his prizemoney past the $130,000 level for his connections.
